Pronunciation: bra-HEE-uh MORE-ee-eye
Common Name: Dwarf Rock Palm
Brahea moorei is on many growers 'want list' as it a magnificent palm, but an extremely rare one. This is a smallish, 'user-friendly', single or clustering palm with soft, blue-green leaves, no petiolar spines and nearly pure white undersides to the leaves. As a young palm it has relatively common looking circular green leaves, but as it matures (which takes many years) the leaves eventually turn a greyish-blue-green color with ornamental white leaflet divisions. Mature palms are scarce, if not completely absent, in California, but some are getting there.
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Appearance and Biology
- Habit: solitary or clustering with a crown of 10-15 fan leaves
- Height: overall height 3'-4' (trunkless)
- Trunk: underground
- Crownshaft: none
- Spread: 4'-6'+
- Leaf Description: palmate; circular; bright, shiny green on top for many years, but eventually becoming a bit gray-green; divided 2/3-3/4 of leaf length; white lines demarking the leaflet borders of the un-split parts of the leaf; leaves nearly pure white underneath; leaf texture is unusually soft and pliable for a Brahea; 3'-4' long
- Petiole/Leaf bases: pale blue-grey; 2'-3' long; unarmed
- Reproduction: monoecious
- Inflorescence: extend above the leaf crown; branched; no flowering palms in California (yet)
- Fruit:
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Horticultural Characteristics
- Minimum Temp: 22F
- Drought Tolerance: good
- Dry Heat Tolerance: very good
- Wind Tolerance: good
- Salt Tolerance: unknown
- Growth Rate: very slow
- Soil Preference: adaptable
- Light Requirement: filtered sun to full sun
- Human Hazards: none
- Disease or Horticultural Problems: none
- Transplants?: unknown
- Indoor?: unknown
- Availability: extremely rare
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